Wednesday, November 27, 2013

A recent member of the Portland Transportation Twitterati queried about what the agency's best bike project was in 2013. It made me think about what accomplishments we have made with Traffic Signals in the past year (specifically related to bicycle traffic).

Implemented a new bike signal at SW 5th & Jackson associated with Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail construction. That project has taken up a lot of our staff time.

Implemented Bicycle/Bus Signal at 5th & Broadway

Edited Bicycle Signals language for the consideration of the Federal Highway Administration's inclusion in the next edition of the MUTCD.

Supported roadway reorganizations with technical analysis for PBOT projects on NE Glisan and SE Division to support improved safety (bicycle lanes were added on SE Division)

This sort of reflection is helpful, it's time to set some goals for 2014. I should go through this process for every mode.

There's a lot of work that happens that is just day to day making traffic signals better for people on bicycles. Today, I fielded a complaint that I have visited before on my bicycle, but figured that not many people use that street, so it wasn't worth fixing if I was the only one using the street via bicycle. Well, the customer is always right and in this case, there is a really minor change that can be made to make the signal "accessible" for someone on a bicycle (the signal head wasn't visible from someone in the bicycle lane AND there wasn't detection in the bicycle lane).